This has been a long time coming. This man worked as a trash collector and then as a mechanic out of his garage. All the neighbors liked him and said he was a good dad with his daughter just recently graduating.

One of his victims escaped years ago and lead police then straight to his house but the police came up empty handed. Now with the newest technology only in LA and nowhere else in the US they caught him by disguising a detective at a pizza place and took the DNA off the killers son, then matching it to him. Reporters then worried it wouldn't hold up in court by doing it this way but the Dept. Heads explained today that it would.

Here is the article from ABC News:

It wasn't a witness or informant that tipped off law enforcement to the identity of the "Grim Sleeper" serial killer, who had eluded police for more than two decades, but DNA from the suspect's own son.
After two decades, a suspected serial killer is arrested in LA cold case.

A new technique called familial DNA led police to 57-year-old Lonnie David Franklin Jr., who was charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder Wednesday in the infamous "Grim Sleeper" slayings in Los Angeles.

Police said that the technique could prove more revolutionary than fingerprinting in solving crime.

"This is a landmark case. This will change the way policing is done in the United States," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference today.

The technique may also be controversial, and likely faces legal challenges.

"This arrest provides proof positive that familial DNA searches must be a part of law enforcement's crime-fighting arsenal. Although the adoption of this new state policy was unprecedented and controversial, in certain cases, it is the only way to bring a dangerous killer to justice," said Attorney General Jerry Brown in a statement.

The familial DNA program was enacted by Brown in April 2008 as a way to fight violent crimes when there is "serious risk to public safety," according to the attorney general's office. California is the first state to use familial searches.

The high-profile case had languished unsolved, and had haunted the files of the LAPD cold-case unit for years. According to the attorney general's office, the suspect's son was arrested and convicted in a felony weapons charge and swabbed for DNA last year. When his DNA was entered into the database of convicted felons, detectives were alerted to a partial match to evidence found at the "Grim Sleeper" crime scenes.

The series of killings included victims, mostly female, in the city of Los Angeles, in unincorporated areas of L.A. County and in Inglewood since the 1980s. A survivor in 1988 described her attacker as black, in his 20s, 5 feet, 8 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, about 160 pounds, soft-spoken and articulate, with neatly trimmed hair and a pockmarked face.

DNA and ballistics evidence have connected the killings of 10 women and one man from 1985 to 2007, police said. After 1988, the killer did not commit any known homicides until 2002. He last struck on Jan. 1, 2007.

The victims the killer targeted were all black and most were apparent prostitutes or drug addicts who were sexually assaulted. A 12th victim escaped after being shot and raped.

They hope they know of all the victims but they are still looking into it now they have him custody.

That's great news. And I can tell you from some recent training I did, DNA evidence is becoming extremely sensitive. It's pretty amazing where this is going and this case is a perfect example.

They had a detective work at local pizza place where the son goes I guess and then took the DNA off the pizza. LA is the only place in the US with this new technology